I just released an updated version of my BeatStep Pro controller script for Bitwig Studio 2.0. The release is available at https://github.com/benschmaus/bitwig-beatsteppro/releases, and it has the same functionality as described at https://factotumo.com/2017/01/bitwig-bsp-script-update-enhanced-cursor-device-control/. In a nutshell you can use each of the BSP’s sequencers independently as MIDI inputs for tracks, control cursor device params/macros, and navigate tracks, devices, and

With some regularity I come across things that look interesting and then forget where I saw them when I finally get around to checking them out. To mitigate this I’m going to try keeping a running list of stuff that catches my eye in monthly “grab bag” posts. Here’s my list over the last few weeks. Automatonism https://www.automatonism.com/

I’ve been working with James Grahame and Peter Kirn on a Web MIDI project for meeblip.com over the last month or so. (More on that in an upcoming post.) As part of that work I’ve learned that MIDI access behaves differently in Chrome and Opera (the only two browsers that support Web MIDI to date to my knowledge),

Turns out my old Commodore 64 has been sitting around in my parents’ basement for the last 30 some years. They’re bringing it with them on an upcoming visit to Philadelphia. I’m really excited to hook everything up and power it on. I’m hoping it’s still in working order and I can coax some gnarly tones out

Despite not posting for awhile, I’ve been pretty busy with music-related projects. I’ve become more interested in programmatic composition and have spent some time with SuperCollider and a Scala API for SuperCollider called ScalaCollider. I’ve also started looking at AudioKit for audio programming for Mac/iOS. The audio engine for AudioKit is an open source library called SoundPipe,

I released the first version of the Web MIDI console back in November of 2015. I’d been thinking about adding support for message sending for awhile and Geert Bevin’s SendMIDI tool gave me the inspiration to finally implement it. Thanks, Geert! (And apologies if I mispronounced your name in the video.) The following video shows a quick

Geert Bevin, a prolific developer of music software (e.g., he wrote the firmware for the Linnstrument and has been influential in developing the MPE extension for expressive MIDI controllers) has recently opensourced a utility called SendMIDI, which lets you send MIDI messages from a simple command line interface. For example, using SendMIDI, I can send the following

I made a few small tweaks to the Bitwig Beatstep Pro script I released a few weeks ago. The encoders now control parameters and macros for the cursor device of the selected track instead of the primary device. Since you can navigate the selected track’s device chain using steps #3 and #4 in control mode

When you’re using a single MIDI controller to record multiple instrument tracks in Bitwig you often only want a single instrument track to be armed for recording at a time. But if you’re using Bitwig in a performance context with a multichannel hardware step sequencer, like Arturia’s Beatstep Pro (you can get a Bitwig script for that